ChiBER is a new PC-hardware based StrongARM computer system which is currently in development by Jason Tribbeck. The idea is simple; put a StrongARM processor and RISC OS onto a PCI card, slot it into the back of a standard Windows PC and you have yourself a super charged StrongARM machine running current RISC OS applications at speeds possibly higher than those which a RiscPC 2 could achieve. This is because the PC's own Pentium chip could be used to perform FPE, sound or graphics tasks whilst the StrongARM handles the main jobs. Further, the PC's existing sound card and graphics accelerators (3DFX cards for example) would become instantly available to the StrongARM processor!
 
This development is by all means quite revolutionary to say the least. Just think about it; people who have off the shelf PCs could go out and buy this reasonably priced card and 'upgrade' their PC to a fully functional RISC OS machine. The software interface will probably work in a similar way to the PC card software on an existing RiscPC in that the RISC OS side of things would share hard disc, memory and all other hardware add-ons with the PC.
 
If the project goes to plan, RISC OS could well have a very secure future even if it is nested within the enemy camp!

When can I buy one?

Well, Jason needs assistance to get his idea from the drawing board into reality. Check out the ChiOS WWW site at: http://www.chios.org.uk/ for technical details.
 
Announcing this project at such an early stage is primarily to see how many people will be interested in this device. If you would be interested in buying the device, please email Jason at interest@chios.org.uk. If you are interested in helping develop the product, please email develop@chios.org.uk.

But what's all this got to do with games?

The simple answer is: a lot!
 
For starters, faster, more graphically intensive games can be developed to take advantage of the speed of ChiBER. Also, if the low cost of ChiBER leads to more people turning to RISC OS, there will clearly be a much larger audience to sell to in the future. That means more sales, more profits and then more development and in the long run, more games for me and you!